3. 3. 213 how th’ Asse made his diuisions. See Fab. cix, Fabulae Aesopicae, Leipzig, 1810, Leo, Asinus et Vulpes. Harsnet (Declaration, p. 110) refers to this fable, and Dekker made a similar application in Match me in London, 1631, Wks. 4. 145:
King. Father Ile tell you a Tale, vpon a time The Lyon Foxe and silly Asse did jarre. Grew friends and what they got, agreed to share: A prey was tane, the bold Asse did diuide it Into three equall parts, the Lyon spy’d it. And scorning two such sharers, moody grew, And pawing the Asse, shooke him as I shake you ... And in rage tore him peece meale, the Asse thus dead, The prey was by the Foxe distributed Into three parts agen; of which the Lyon Had two for his share, and the Foxe but one: The Lyon (smiling) of the Foxe would know Where he had this wit, he the dead Asse did show. Valasc. An excellent Tale. King. Thou art that Asse.
3. 3. 214 Much good do you. So in Sil. Wom., Wks. 3. 398: ‘Much good do him.’
3. 3. 217 And coozen i’ your bullions. Massinger’s Fatal Dowry, Wks., p. 272, contains the following passage: ‘The other is his dressing-block, upon whom my lord lays all his clothes and fashions ere he vouchsafes them his own person: you shall see him ... at noon in the Bullion,’ etc. In a note on this passage (Wks. 3. 390, ed. 1813) Gifford advanced the theory that the bullion was ‘a piece of finery, which derived its denomination from the large globular gilt buttons, still in use on the continent.’ In his note on the present passage, he adds that it was probably ‘adopted by gamblers and others, as a mark of wealth, to entrap the unwary.’
Nares was the next man to take up the word. He connected it with ‘bullion; Copper-plates set on the Breast-leathers and Bridles of Horses for ornament’ (Phillips 1706). ‘I suspect that it also meant, in colloquial use, copper lace, tassels, and ornaments in imitation of gold. Hence contemptuously attributed to those who affected a finery above their station.’
Dyce (B. & Fl., Wks. 7. 291) was the first to disconnect the word from bullion meaning uncoined gold or silver. He says: ‘Bullions, I apprehend, mean some sort of hose or breeches, which were bolled or bulled, i. e. swelled, puffed out (cf. Sad. Shep., Act 1. Sc. 2, bulled nosegays’).’
The NED. gives ‘prob. a. F. bouillon in senses derived from that of “bubble.”’
Besides the passages already given, the word occurs in B. & Fl., The Chances, Wks. 7. 291:
Why should not bilbo raise him, or a pair of bullions?
Beggar’s Bush, Wks. 9. 81: